


at times the body loses its ability to die properly

by autumnstwilight (sewohayami)



Series: FFXV Drabbles and Flash Fic [6]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Gen, Introspection, One Shot, Short, Suicidal Ideation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:09:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23890618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sewohayami/pseuds/autumnstwilight
Summary: The gods had stolen everything, even his death.A response to the computer-generated prompt "at times the body loses its ability to die properly", which compelled me to write about Ardyn.
Series: FFXV Drabbles and Flash Fic [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986535
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	at times the body loses its ability to die properly

The gods had stolen everything, even his death.

The rain fell from above, and the water that dripped from his fingers was murky. Ardyn didn’t care. The clouds blotted out the sun, and lessened the stinging on his face, but he didn’t care about that either. Warmth, comfort, cold, pain, all washed over him like a rock in the ocean. What was comfort when it would soon end, and what was pain compared to that he had already experienced?

Scourge soaked into the ground at his feet, and already the plants there had begun to wither as though parched, even as the rain continued to fall. It was unnatural, he supposed, to lose one’s death as though one had misplaced it. Yet death blossomed from his fingertips, seeking out the life in others, and it was a task to restrain it. At least when he bothered to do so.

Somewhere under the cold, wet ground, his brother was rotting. He tried to take satisfaction in that, but found himself again envious over the fates they had been assigned. Somnus’s work was over, and his was only just beginning. Once again, his brother slept while he toiled.

And when had it happened? Which life saved had been the tipping point, which dose of black blood absorbed had poisoned him beyond repair? It must have occurred so slowly that he had not felt it. Or else so quickly he had not perceived it. When he had seen his double reflected in the Crystal and reached out to touch, had it taken a part of him even as it rejected the whole? Or had it merely condemned him?

Some distance away, tires squealed on the wet road. Still the boy-king dawdled, conscious of nothing. It was infuriating, really, given that he had more than earned Ardyn’s ire just by existing. The gods’ decree, which he would enjoy breaking, when the time came. But for now, he could only set the lure, bait the trap, lead the lamb to the slaughter.

_ I wonder, Noct. At the end of your journey, will you find my death? Or just your own? _


End file.
